Phoenix 4pm, December 31

Notes: Suns come in as one of the hottest NBA teams for the 2nd game of their 5 games in 7 days East Coast trip. At the time of this writting the Suns are boasting an impressive 9-1 record against Easten Div teams and an 8-4 road record.

Anyone remember what a great job Maxiell did on Amare during the pre-season?

I know it's "pre-season" and Amare wasn't Amare then. But i'm curious to see how he plays him (if Flip goes that route). Outside of DD, he did the best job on J'Oneal, and Sheed is just useless these days. His lateral movement is just not there with the sore ankles.

Edited to add;
Amare picks up alot of fouls, and if i recall Maxiell actually got him to foul out in that game.

The Suns aren't that deep: there are only 7 players on their roster who average more than 15 MPG, along with Jumaine Jones, who played well against Dallas on Thursday. There are a couple more good shooters on the bench (James Jones, Jalen, Pike), but D'Antoni doesn't trust them.

If Rasheed's ankles are still sore, I'd like to see Maxiell get the start against Amare, with Tayshaun on Diaw and Nazr on Marion. Blalock should get his chance - he won't be worse defensively than anyone else against Nash, and he should be able to get wherever he wants on the other end.

Rebounding's important; the Suns are actually a decent defensive team on the first shot but with their size and leaky boxouts are vulnerable to second shots.

I wouldn`t say D`Antoni doesn`t trust them. They have been very successful playing with whoever is on the floor. Whenever someone on the bench is called upon they contribute, that`s what I mean by being deep.

Murray: surprised me. Good offensive game: slow decision-making, occasionally bad decision making, but productive. Passed more and more willingly than usual. Stupid defense, but that's to be expected. Rebounded well.
Hamilton: 6 turnovers, otherwise excellent. Showed initiative to get Bell ejected.
Prince: invisible for the most part. Made a few good decisions and a few bad ones. Defense okay to bad.
R. Wallace: chucked like a madman. Played about 10 minutes of good defense, otherwise slow.
Mohammed: totally invisible; limited to short minutes.
Delfino: took three bad jumpers, including one which triggered a fast-break 3-point play that sealed the game inside a minute left. Two stupid bad pass TOs. Bad defense. Rebounded okay.
Maxiell: decent offense, decent rebounding, nice shotblocking. Didn't get nearly enough touches.
McDyess: rebounded and hit some shots. Showed reluctance to shoot when open occasionally. Slow defense.
Blalock: his worst game as a pro. Invisible. Got one very bad call that accounted for his turnover in short minutes.

If Detroit had played some tougher D they could have won this game. Nash is a MVP for a reason he just does everything he needs to do to win. At least Flip Murray got his offensive game going and that's a positive. Rip was ridden way too hard tonight (44 minutes) and 6 turnovers shows that he's tired. Flip activated Amir Johnson and maybe he should get a few minutes of playing time instead of Sheed. I think our best 5 players right now on the floor are Tay, Maxiell, Flip, Delfino and Dice. Not happy with a 3 game losing streak but every team goes through a bad patch and I'm glad the Pistons are having theirs now and not a week before the playoffs start (crosses my fingers on that one).

Pistons couldn't quite get over the hump at the end. They got some stops late in the game and had a chance to tie with under a minute left, but Delfino missed a 3 and Nash scored on the break, with and one on a dumb foul by Flip. Sheed was the escape goat in this game, 4-17 from the floor and 0-7 on threes. Rip was huge, Delfino had 11 pts and 7 boards off the bench, Dice had a nice game, and Jmax made some good plays as well. Nash and Amare combined for 66 points, on 23-34 shooting between them.

Flip Jr. had a terrible first half, but he had a really nice second half, finishing 9-14 from the floor, with 7 assists and only 2 turnovers. His defense is still awful; hopefully it won't hurt the Pistons as much against teams that don't have Steve Nash.

Not a bad effort for the Pistons in their first game in years without Chauncey. If Sheed can show up AT ALL, Flip Jr. can be productive in big minutes, and the bench keeps producing, the next couple of weeks might not be so bad.